By Benjamin Carter
I had a rather unpleasant experience in the textbook section of the BYU Bookstore recently.
I bought three books for a class that I had signed up for. I decided to drop the class after the first week, but I was busy and figured I had some time to return the books. So finally, on the last day the bookstore gives refunds I took my books in.
I placed the books on the counter and showed the clerk my receipt. Everything was going smoothly until the clerk asked me if I had dropped the class. I replied that I had, and just as a sort of offhand remark I said that I had dropped the class a week previous.
?I didn?t want to hear that,? she said.
She explained that the Bookstore has a policy of only refunding books up to two business days after the student drops the class. This policy is in effect only after the initial refund period is over (I was aware that I would only get an 80 percent refund).
The clerk told me I would need to get the refund approved by someone in the textbook office. So I walked over there expecting only to have to show that I had actually dropped the class. The gentleman who helped me in the textbook office informed me, however, that there was nothing he could do if I had dropped the class more than two days previous.
While this policy and this experience was infuriating, the more disturbing part of it all is the fact that there doesn?t seem to be any reason for the policy. I called the Bookstore about an hour later, identified myself as a reporter for The Daily Universe, explained my experience and calmly asked for an explanation of the two-day policy.
The Bookstore official said something about getting the books back in their hands as soon as possible, but couldn?t explain why. When pressed he said the alternative to the two-day policy would be unlimited refunds. I see no reason why they couldn?t arrive at a reasonable happy medium. Almost every other retail store I?ve ever been to seems to have managed it.
For example, Big Daddy?s Music Exchange on University Parkway has a 30-day refund policy. They sell used CDs and DVDs, which sometimes have scratches making them unusable. There is a much greater risk of their products being defective than there is of textbooks being defective.
The online refund policy notes that sometimes returned books aren?t used in the following semester, which leaves the bookstore with useless books (I can?t imagine how that might feel).
I understand that they wouldn?t want that to happen, but couldn?t employees check to see if those books are going to be used again when asked for a refund, instead of implementing a blanket policy that hurts their customers?
When pressed further, the official dodged the question by attacking me for not having read the entire refund policy stapled to my receipt (a point I freely concede). Had I read that part of the policy, I certainly would have at least tried to comply, but I still would have wondered what the reason for it was.
It?s frustrating that the Bookstore has no answer for students who spend hundreds of dollars every semester on books and sometimes have to return them because of unforeseen changes in their schedules.
The two-day policy seems to exist only for its own sake. The Bookstore should at least have an explanation for it if they intend to keep it.